Real Madrid tops football club earnings for 11th consecutive year

Jotham Lian

Real Madrid is the highest earning football club for the 11th straight year, with La Liga rivals Barcelona leapfrogging Manchester United into second, according to Deloitte's Football Money League.

The report, published on Thursday, compiles revenue generated from match days, broadcast rights and commercial sources, with Real topping the top 20 Money League clubs with a combined figure of €577 million ($905.1 million).

Bob Murphy announces retirement

Bob Murphy announces retirement

Sport: The week's best plays

From last-gasp winners to brutal hits, these are the most exciting, silly and downright crazy plays in the sporting world this week.

For the fourth time in the past seven seasons, the top 20 featured clubs solely from the "big five" leagues – England, Italy, Germany, Spain and France – combining for an 8 per cent increase to a record high of €6.6 billion.

Barcelona's bumper year on the pitch in 2014-15 as they clinched the Treble by winning La Liga, Copa del Rey and the Champions League helped them jump to second from fourth the year before, moving ahead of Manchester United (third) and Bayern Munich (fifth).

It was the first time the top three clubs in the Football Money League have all passed the €500 million in revenue mark.

Despite failing to make the Champions league in 2014-15, Manchester United have continued to go from strength to strength, with new sponsorships and strong commercial growth contributing to a 1.5 per cent increase in revenue.

Advertisement

Tim Bridge, senior manager at Deloitte, said their return to Champions League football this season as well as a number of commercial partnerships would only strengthen the business in 2015-16.

The Premier League's ever-growing broadcasting bidding war sees nine English teams making the top 20, with Italy the next highest contributor with four teams.

Chelsea fell one place to eighth, while London rivals Arsenal, who top the Premier League, climbed to seventh.

Manchester City and Liverpool were the other two Premier League clubs in the top 10, in sixth and ninth places respectively.

"With the new round of Premier League broadcast deals set to deliver greatly improved domestic broadcast revenues in 2016-17, we expect to see Premier League clubs cementing their places in the top 30 in the coming years, with potential for some of these to climb into the top 20," Bridge said.

"There is an outside chance that the Money League top 30 will feature all 20 Premier League clubs in two years' time."

Bayern Munich fell from third to fifth place, their lowest position since 2006-07, and were overtaken by Paris St Germain – the only French team in the top 20.